Children’s Lives Matter

This week’s Friday Fictioneers prompt by Rochelle is an abandoned building that may have once been a lively place. Read more contributions HERE.

PHOTO PROMPT © Carole Erdman-Grant

Children’s Lives Matter

Her dream for this ruin was a restaurant as a picturesque stop on the journey into the mountains. Marlene squeezed my hand.

Derelict! My heart sunk like my bank balance flushing down the drain. This renovation project was Marlene’s childhood dream. A notion she started in the school playground, gazing at the view of the surrounding rocky peaks.

She led me through the burnt-out shell, and I heard children laughing and singing.
Marlene sang along, with tears rolling down her cheeks.

Let’s not do this, I shook my head.
Yes! I want a memorial, she said. To remember my dead classmates.